4 ms·

I think pricing is a big problem. The ones in local shops are close to restaurant pricing ($7 per person) for home-cook quality food. This basically collapses

by hakfoo 8y ago

I think pricing is a big problem. The ones in local shops are close to restaurant pricing ($7 per person) for home-cook quality food. This basically collapses the market to a small demographic-- singles and couples who are affluent and time starved and willing to pay $3 per meal extra to save 20 minutes of prep work in a 60 minute recipe. A family of four with a blue-collar salary will sail right past that and go for frozen meals if they want an easy option. I think this is also what killed the ready-made meals trend of a few years ago. I wonder if there's a way to repackage the product to fit a more frugal audience. Something like "we're doing one recipe per day, in huge quantities, with minimal waste, simple packaging, and efficient prep" -- get the cost of the kit comparable to buying the ingredients loose.

snickerbockers 8y ago
>This basically collapses the market to a small demographic-- singles and couples Actually just couples. I tried it earlier this year because somebody gave me a gift certificate, and what I found is that when you're on their service, they will ship you two meals a week and each meal has two servings. That means that if you're single then 4/7 dinners every week is being chosen from whatever Blue Apron is offering in that week's very-limited selection of prepackaged meals. It's absolutely dismal. They know this is a problem too, because when I ended my subscription they had a survey that asked me why, and one of the prefilled answers was that I'm single.
- ghaff 8y ago
  Another issue of mine. Some really have an amount of protein that’s arguably appropriate for 1. Others are fine for leftovers. But still others don’t keep well. Of course this is something of an issue with buying food at the store generally but at least that’s under your control.
dagw 8y ago
Literally every person I know who uses these sorts of services are middle class families with small kids where both parents work.

by hakfoo 8y ago

snickerbockers 8y ago

>This basically collapses the market to a small demographic-- singles and couples Actually just couples. I tried it earlier this year because somebody gave me a gift certificate, and what I found is that when you're on their service, they will ship you two meals a week and each meal has two servings. That means that if you're single then 4/7 dinners every week is being chosen from whatever Blue Apron is offering in that week's very-limited selection of prepackaged meals. It's absolutely dismal. They know this is a problem too, because when I ended my subscription they had a survey that asked me why, and one of the prefilled answers was that I'm single.

ghaff 8y ago
Another issue of mine. Some really have an amount of protein that’s arguably appropriate for 1. Others are fine for leftovers. But still others don’t keep well. Of course this is something of an issue with buying food at the store generally but at least that’s under your control.

dagw 8y ago

Literally every person I know who uses these sorts of services are middle class families with small kids where both parents work.